6 September 2000 Edition
The truth must out
News that the powerful US House of Representatives body, the International Relations Committee, is to call for the full implementation of the Patten Report, will add to mounting pressure on the British Government on the policing issue.
The motion to go before the Committee today, Thursday 7 September, is another example of the degree of scrutiny that Peter Mandelson is now under.
Once again the killings of human rights solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson and evidence of collusion and cover up are making headlines.
So far, the British have withstood the pressure of demands for public inquiries into the circumstances of these killings. But for how long more can they refuse these simple demands?
The steady drip of revealed information is fast becoming a landslide, implicating the British state at the highest levels in the assassinations of people it deemed a threat.
There has also been conclusive evidence that the securocrat agenda is alive and well, with the covert war against republicans remaining a key part of British Government strategy. The bugging of a car used by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, during a crucial period of the negotiations last year, coupled with the latest disclosure that the offices used by John De Chastelain - chair of the decommissioning body - were bugged, further erodes British credibility.
And who do we have to investigate all this? English police officers may head the investigations, but they are based in RUC barracks and rely on RUC members for back up.
In Omagh, coroner John Leckey has rightly decided to allow full disclosure of information to the families of those killed in the Omagh bombing, at the inquest which began this week.
Surely now that the precedent is set, it is incumbent on the British government to give full disclosure to the families of people killed by their forces.
The call for openness in these investigations and for the disclosure of information is not a threat to the security of our society, but a promise of security for those who have to live there.
It is also a demand for long overdue justice on behalf of the families of the victims of the state.
The motion to go before the Committee today, Thursday 7 September, is another example of the degree of scrutiny that Peter Mandelson is now under.
Once again the killings of human rights solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson and evidence of collusion and cover up are making headlines.
So far, the British have withstood the pressure of demands for public inquiries into the circumstances of these killings. But for how long more can they refuse these simple demands?
The steady drip of revealed information is fast becoming a landslide, implicating the British state at the highest levels in the assassinations of people it deemed a threat.
There has also been conclusive evidence that the securocrat agenda is alive and well, with the covert war against republicans remaining a key part of British Government strategy. The bugging of a car used by Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, during a crucial period of the negotiations last year, coupled with the latest disclosure that the offices used by John De Chastelain - chair of the decommissioning body - were bugged, further erodes British credibility.
And who do we have to investigate all this? English police officers may head the investigations, but they are based in RUC barracks and rely on RUC members for back up.
In Omagh, coroner John Leckey has rightly decided to allow full disclosure of information to the families of those killed in the Omagh bombing, at the inquest which began this week.
Surely now that the precedent is set, it is incumbent on the British government to give full disclosure to the families of people killed by their forces.
The call for openness in these investigations and for the disclosure of information is not a threat to the security of our society, but a promise of security for those who have to live there.
It is also a demand for long overdue justice on behalf of the families of the victims of the state.